Health & WellnessS


Health

Controlling Inflammatory and Immune Responses


ScienceDaily
Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:26 UTC
Researchers at the IRCM, led by geneticist Dr. Jacques Drouin, recently defined the interaction between two essential proteins that control inflammation. This important breakthrough will be published in the July 13 print edition of the scientific journal Molecular Cell.

IRCM scientists study glucocorticoids, a class of steroid hormones that suppress the immune system and reduce inflammation. They are used in medicine to treat diseases such as allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases.

"In molecular biology and genetics, proteins known as transcription factors bind to DNA in order to control the expression (or transcription) of genetic information," explains Dr. Drouin, Director of the Molecular Genetics research unit at the IRCM. "Our work defined the genome-wide interaction between two transcription factors: Stat3 and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR)."
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Syringe

Still think vaccines are good?: Two chicken vaccines combine to form deadly virus

Michael Vincent
ABC Australia
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:12 UTC
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The vaccines that were meant to protect the chickens instead led to their deaths
Australian scientists have found that two different vaccines used to control an infectious disease in chickens can recombine to create new lethal virus strains.

The research, to be published today in the journal Science, has prompted authorities to review vaccine use in animals.

But the scientists, from the University of Melbourne, say the findings are not only important for vaccines in chickens, but also for any vaccine which might be able to multiply - including those used in humans.

Chicken respiratory virus ILT can lead to birds dying in a pool of bloody mucus, but vaccines that were meant to protect them have instead led to their deaths.

Dr Joanne Devlin, a lecturer in Veterinary Public Health-Epidemiology at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Animal Health, says the deaths were caused when two vaccines used to treat the virus combined.

"These new strains were formed by recombination from the different vaccine strains and that they were actually more virulent than the vaccine strains that gave rise to them," she says.

"This is something we've never before seen before in the field."
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Sherlock

Scientific Fraud Prevalent Among Science-Based Medicines

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:20 UTC
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© theglobalconspiracy.org
Curious about the prevalence and extent of scientific misconduct, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research investigated the reasons why research studies were retracted, and from wherei.

The highest number of incidents of misconduct occurred in the drug literature, as compared to general biomedical literature. Nearly 75 percent of the retracted drug studies were attributed to scientific misconduct, which includes:
  • Data falsification or fabrication
  • Questionable veracity
  • Unethical author conduct
  • Plagiarism
This is a significant rise when compared to a 1998 review - cited in the featured NewsWise article - in which 37 percent of scientific retractions between 1966 and 1997 were due to scientific misconduct. Even more shocking: According to data from Thomson Reuters, the numbers of scientific retractions have climbed more than 15-fold since 2001ii!

The most unfortunate thing about this is that these are the types of studies many health care professionals rely on to make treatment recommendations. Large numbers of patients can be affected when false findings are published, as the average lag time between publication of the study and the issuing of a retraction is 39 months. And that's if it's ever caught at all.
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Info

Sugar, Sugar - A Poison By Any Other Name Would Be As Toxic

Dr. Peter Osborne
Gluten Free Society
Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:48 UTC
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Although some of the 155 lbs of sugar the average American eats comes from the obvious sugar in desserts, pastries, chocolate and candy...a large amount of that comes from the 'hidden' sugar that we eat in our food every day and one of those is specifically called High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which is the most common sweetener in processed foods and beverages. Aside from the fact that corn gluten has been shown to cause detriment to those with gluten sensitivity, corn fructose is toxic for other reasons...

Dangers of Corn Fructose

Don't be fooled by this name for some think, "Well it has corn in it and fructose and that is the sugar in fruit so it must be good for you." That is far from the truth because many health professionals call HFCS a toxic and poisonous substance.

Unfortunately it has leaked into our food system and probably won't be going anywhere, anytime soon and it's where many people consume lots of sugar and they don't even really know it. The key to reading ingredient labels is to look for what is on the first 3 to 5 ingredients, which means if it is listed in the first 3 to 5 that is the largest amount of ingredient in the food.

If HFCS is still listed on the label, I wouldn't touch it, I don't care where it is but at least don't purchase foods with it in the top 5 to 7 ingredients. Too much of this toxic substance in our bodies has been linked to obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, rapid aging, fatty liver disease and many more conditions.

The quick rise in medical problems in America has also been directly related to the rise of the consumption of HFCS. If you are eating any processed foods or beverages that are sweetened with NON artificial sweeteners, believe me, you are getting plenty of HFCS. And even though HFCS comes from a natural source, it's essentially an unnatural product.

Comment: Read the following articles for more information regarding: The Dirty Truth About High Fructose Corn Syrup...

How Sweet It Isn't! Cutting Through the Hype and Deception of High Fructose Corn Syrup
High-Fructose Corn Syrup is Evil: 7 Key Findings
How High Fructose Corn Syrup Damages Your Body
Don't Sugar-Coat High-Fructose Corn Syrup

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Health

Doctors Say Mystery Cambodian Illness is Solved


WIBW
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:25 UTC
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© Unknown
The cause of a mysterious illness that has claimed the lives of more than 60 Cambodian children has been determined, medical doctors familiar with the investigation told CNN on Wednesday.

A combination of pathogens, disease-causing micro-organisms, is to blame for the illness, the World Health Organization, in conjunction with the Cambodian Ministry of Health, has concluded, the doctors said.

The pathogens include enterovirus 71, which is known to cause neurological disease; streptococcus suis, which can cause infections like bacterial meningitis in people who have close contact with pigs or with pork products; and dengue, which is transmitted by mosquitoes.

The inappropriate use of steroids, which can suppress the immune system, worsened the illness in a majority of the patients, the doctors said. The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to advise health care workers to refrain from using steroids in patients with signs and symptoms of the infection, which include severe fever, encephalitis and breathing difficulties.
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Health

Mercury Fillings May Cause Breast Cancer

Dr. Veronique Desaulniers
Greenmedinfo.com
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:01 UTC
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© Unknown
There is no safe level of mercury. Mercury is the most toxic naturally occurring substance on the planet, yet, according to the EPA, there is currently over 1 ton of mercury from amalgam fillings in the mouths of Americans. Over 67 million Americans exceed the exposure of mercury vapors considered "safe" by the EPA because of the presence of amalgams in their teeth.1

Mercury is treated as a bio-hazardous material in a dental office, but then, the uninformed and unsuspecting patient ends up with a mouth full of amalgam fillings, which are 50% mercury.

With over 32 years in the Wellness Industry and having worked with thousands of very sick patients, I have noticed that there has always been a common denominator - amalgam fillings and root canals. Although the focus for this article is the effect of toxic teeth and the role they play in breast cancer, the principles can be applied to every known disease.
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Footprints

Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret

Stacey Singer
The Palm Beach Post
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 06:59 UTC
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© Stacey SingerLilla Charline Burkhalter, 60, comes to the Clara White center for breakfast most mornings. It was here, in the soup kitchen, that a man with active, coughing TB was recently identified, leading to the discovery that Jacksonville was in the midst of the largest TB outbreak in the country. Burkhalter is coughing, but she says it’s her emphysema acting up.
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Jacksonville - The CDC officer had a serious warning for Florida health officials in April: A tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville was one of the worst his group had investigated in 20 years. Linked to 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, including six children, it would require concerted action to stop.

That report had been penned on April 5, exactly nine days after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill that shrank the Department of Health and required the closure of the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tough tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years.
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Bacon

Red Meat Can be Part of a Healthful Diet

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
Red Meat
© iStockphoto / Thinkstock
At some point, "red meat" became taboo in the nutritional world. If you put good old-fashioned grass-fed, organically-raised meat in a nutrition analyzer, you'd find it's one of the most nutritious foods you can eat.

Still, many people want to believe that all red meat is unhealthy. A new study out of Harvard once again attempts to demonize red meati.

And despite being profoundly flawed, the study was written up by a number of media outlets, such as The New York Times and CNN Health; their headlines warning that red meat will send you into an early grave.

Among many other problems, the nutrition data for the study was collected via food questionnaires, meaning people had to recall what they'd eaten in the past. Needless to say, this doesn't make for great accuracy. The New York Times reported on the study, statingii:
"People who ate more red meat were less physically active and more likely to smoke and had a higher body mass index, researchers found.

Still, after controlling for those and other variables, they found that each daily increase of three ounces of red meat was associated with a 12 percent greater risk of dying over all, including a 16 percent greater risk of cardiovascular death and a 10 percent greater risk of cancer death.

The increased risks linked to processed meat, like bacon, were even greater: 20 percent over all, 21 percent for cardiovascular disease and 16 percent for cancer. If people in the study had eaten half as much meat, the researchers estimated, deaths in the group would have declined 9.3 percent in men and 7.6 percent in women."
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Question

Chiropractors Offering Unproven Laser Treatment For Food Allergies

Kenny Goldberg
KPBS
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:13 UTC

San Diego - An estimated six million American children have food allergies. Those who are highly allergic can get deathly ill if they eat the wrong thing.

Some chiropractors claim they can cure allergies through the use of a laser. Zack Jones was game to try it. He's a happy-go-lucky nine-year-old, with one big exception: he has severe food allergies.

"I'm allergic to milk, all dairy products, eggs, stuff like that. And tree nuts, peanuts, and probably other nuts like walnuts and almonds," Zach explained

He is so allergic to these foods, that if someone else ate some peanuts and touched him, Zack would have a reaction.

"Well, I would start getting itchy, and then I'll have like red hives and my skin will get red, and then I'll have to take some Benedryl, or get a wipe and wipe it off," he said.

Recently, Zack's mom, Silvia, was exploring some alternative therapies. A chiropractor in Escondido told her about an allergy treatment called Bio-Allergenix.

"And so I asked him what that was, and he told me it was a laser treatment, that eliminated allergies." Silvia Jones recalled. "And I asked him, I had never heard about this before, and I was just curious. And he told me he had a 100% success rate."

So Jones brought Zack in.

"He performed laser treatment on my son," she said. "So my son sat on a chair, and it was just a little pen with a blue light. And he just went over the top of his skull, you know, his different points that they have."

After the therapy, the chiropractor told Jones that in two days, Zack could eat eggs.

Just to be on the safe side, Jones brought Zack into see his allergist.
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Health

Early-Life Exposure to PCE, Chemical in Drinking Water, May Affect Vision, Study Finds


ScienceDaily
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:06 UTC
Prenatal and early childhood exposure to the chemical solvent tetrachloroethylene (PCE) found in drinking water may be associated with long-term visual impairments, particularly in the area of color discrimination, a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers has found.

The study by epidemiologists and biostatisticians at BUSPH, working with an ophthalmologist from the BU School of Medicine, found that people exposed to higher levels of PCE from gestation through age 5 exhibited poorer color-discrimination abilities than unexposed people. The study, published July 11 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, recommends further investigation into the visual impairments associated with PCE exposure.
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